Brave effort from Denard Robinson not nearly enough...
I'm not try to denigrate Michigan. At least they played four quarters of hard nosed football. At least they took it like a man and refused to quit. The Wolverines were primed but not ready to beat the best team in college football on Saturday night. They won't be ready later in the season or next. As long as Nick Saban prowls the sidelines in Tuscaloosa I'm not sure that anyone will be ready to de-throne Alabama. The only question left to be answered from the game is - what could the score had been if Alabama played a complete game. I'm not taking one thing away from the Tide. The had an excellent first quarter. The Crimson and White jumped out to a (ahem...) 21-0 lead. I was thinking that 4 times 21 is 84. Seriously.
The Tide extended the lead to 31-0 and then allowed Michigan to score. The Tide shifted the transmission to neutral and coasted in for a 41-14 win. I think that Alabama could have scored well over 50 if they had kept the pedal to metal. They are a young team and youth tends to celebrate a little early. That, and a gallant effort from the diminutive Denard Robinson kept the Big Ten from being the laughing stock of the nation today. Let's put this in some perspective. Spanning a three game run the Tide had outscored Auburn, Michigan, and LSU 70-0. LSU was ranked number one. Michigan was ranked number 8. Auburn is a much hated arch-rival. When Auburn scored their final points in last year's Iron Bowl who would have thought that the Tide would run off with 70 unanswered points? And all this occured in the era of wide open offenses. Alabama made that run with a solid offense and a defense that is a throw back to WWI. When a team plays the Crimson Tide it is like trench warfare. If you closely watched the line play you could see that Michigan was clearly intimidated at times. You can't blame them. The Wolverine players didn't quit like LSU did last season. Give them props for that.
Eddie Lacy started but his toe injury still seems to be around. So what does Alabama do? They put the human steam roller, Jalston Fowler, at tailback and he just knocked anyone out of his way were they foolish enough to tackle him. A lot of the Michigan defensive backs were left along to tackle Fowler. After his first couple of runs the Wolverine DB's didn't look all that interested in bringing number 45 to the ground. And then the Tide played T.J. Yeldon. The freshman ran for 111 yards on only 10 carries. The Blue and Maize couldn't tackle Fowler and they couldn't find Yeldon to tackle. Can you imagine the Tide running game when Lacy and Hart are 100%. Don't think for one minute that Hart is out of the picture. He's fast and quick, he's versatile, and he fine young man.
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| Yeldon explodes |
Eddie Lacy started but his toe injury still seems to be around. So what does Alabama do? They put the human steam roller, Jalston Fowler, at tailback and he just knocked anyone out of his way were they foolish enough to tackle him. A lot of the Michigan defensive backs were left along to tackle Fowler. After his first couple of runs the Wolverine DB's didn't look all that interested in bringing number 45 to the ground. And then the Tide played T.J. Yeldon. The freshman ran for 111 yards on only 10 carries. The Blue and Maize couldn't tackle Fowler and they couldn't find Yeldon to tackle. Can you imagine the Tide running game when Lacy and Hart are 100%. Don't think for one minute that Hart is out of the picture. He's fast and quick, he's versatile, and he fine young man.
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